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Atmospheric Mining in the Outer Solar System: Aerial Vehicle Reconnaissance and Exploration Options

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Atmospheric Mining in the Outer Solar System: Aerial Vehicle Reconnaissance and Exploration Options Atmospheric Mining in the Outer Solar System: Aerial Vehicle Reconnaissance and Exploration Options Bryan Palaszewski NASA John H. Glenn Research Center Lewis Field MS 5-10 Cleveland, OH 44135 (216) 977-7493 Voice (216) 433-5802 FAX [email protected] Fuels and Space Propellants Web Site: http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/Fuels-And-Space-Propellants/foctopsb.htm Atmospheric mining in the outer solar system has been investigated as a means of fuel production for high energy propulsion and power. Fusion fuels such as Helium 3 (3He) and hydrogen can be wrested from the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune and either returned to Earth or used in-situ for energy production. Helium 3 and hydrogen (deuterium, etc.) were the primary gases of interest with hydrogen being the primary propellant for nuclear thermal solid core and gas core rocket-based atmospheric flight. A series of analyses were undertaken to investigate resource capturing aspects of atmospheric mining in the outer solar system. This included the gas capturing rate, storage options, and different methods of direct use of the captured gases. Additional supporting analyses were conducted to illuminate vehicle sizing and orbital transportation issues. While capturing 3He, large amounts of hydrogen and 4He are produced. With these two additional gases, the potential for fueling small and large fleets of additional exploration and exploitation vehicles exists. Additional aerospacecraft or other aerial vehicles (UAVs, balloons, rockets, etc.) could fly through the outer planet atmospheres, for global weather observations, localized storm or other disturbance investigations, wind speed measurements, polar observations, etc. Deep-diving aircraft (built with the strength to withstand many atmospheres of pressure) powered by the excess hydrogen or helium 4 may be designed to probe the higher density regions of the gas giants. Outer planet atmospheric properties, atmospheric storm data, and mission planning for future outer planet UAVs are presented. Nomenclature 3He Helium 3 4He Helium (or Helium 4) AMOSS Atmospheric mining in the outer solar system CC Closed cycle delta-V Change in velocity (km/s) GCR Gas core rocket GTOW Gross Takeoff Weight H2 Hydrogen He Helium 4 ISRU In Situ Resource Utilization Isp Specific Impulse (s) K Kelvin MT Metric tons MWe Megawatt electric (power level) NEP Nuclear Electric Propulsion NTP Nuclear Thermal Propulsion NTR Nuclear Thermal Rocket OC Open cycle O2 Oxygen PPB Parts per billion UAV Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle ________________________________________________________________________ * Leader of Advanced Fuels, AIAA Associate Fellow I. Atmospheric mining in the outer solar system Atmospheric mining of the outer solar system is one of the options for creating nuclear fuels, such as 3He, for future fusion powered exploration vehicles or powering reactors for Earth’s planetary energy. Uranus’ and Neptune’s atmospheres would be the primary mining sites, and robotic vehicles would wrest these gases from the hydrogen-helium gases of those planets. While preliminary estimates of the masses of the mining vehicles have been created (Refs. 1-9), additional supporting vehicles may enhance the mining scenarios. Storing the mined gases at automated bases on outer planet moons was conceived to ease the storage requirements on interplanetary transfer vehicles (that would return the cryogenic gases to Earth). II. Resource Capturing Studies Studies of the gas capture rate and its influence on mining time in the atmosphere were conducted. Aerospacecraft cruisers have been identified as a “best” solution for atmospheric mining (Ref. 1-9). To power these vehicles, atmospheric hydrogen gas would be liquefied and used a rocket propellant for the ascent to orbit. A gas core rocket is a likely candidate. Gaseous or liquid hydrogen would be use to power the engines during atmospheric mining operations. Helium 3 (3He) would be separated from the atmospheric hydrogen and helium (4He) captured, liquefied and stored as a payload that would be returned to orbit. Table I and Figure 1 provide the amount of 3He in the outer planet atmospheres. Figures 2 and 3 show the mining time versus the capture rate for Uranus and Neptune, respectively. A 500-kg payload of 3He is captured during the mining time. Table I. Fraction of helium 3 in outer planet atmospheres The sizing of the gas core powered vehicles and a comparison of the solid core and gas core vehicle options were conducted (Ref. 1). The relatively low thrust to weight of the nuclear engines may necessitate the use of a more advanced gas core nuclear engine over the solid core nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP). Additional study results of the capture, storage, and use of the atmospheric gases were presented in Ref. 1. Atmospheric mining in the outer solar system is a can be powerful tool in extracting fuels from the outer planets and allow fast human and robotic exploration of the solar system. Preliminary designs of aerospacecraft with gas core rocket nuclear engines for mining the outer planets were developed (Ref. 1 to 3). References 10 to 21 provided the data for the design assessments. Analyses showed that gas core engines can reduce the mass of such aerospacecraft mining vehicles very significantly: from 72 to 80 percent reduction over NTP solid core powered aerospacecraft mining vehicles (Ref. 3). While this mass reduction is important in reducing the mass of the overall mining system, the complexity of a fissioning plasma gas core rocket is much higher than the more traditional solid core NTP engines. Additional analyses were conducted to calculate the capture rates of hydrogen and helium 4 during the mining process. Very large masses of hydrogen and helium 4 are produced every day during the often lengthy process of helium 3 capture and gas separation. Figure 4 shows the mass of hydrogen needed for the gas core rocket and the potentially excess hydrogen captured every day. Typically, these very large (excess) additional fuel masses can dwarf the requirements needed for hydrogen capture for ascent to orbit. Thus, the potential for fueling small and large fleets of additional exploration and exploitation vehicles exists. Additional aerospacecraft or other aerial vehicles (UAVs, balloons, rockets, etc.) could fly through the outer planet atmospheres, for global weather observations, localized storm or other disturbance investigations, wind speed measurements, polar observations, etc. Reference 22 alludes to and illustrates the importance of such observations. Deep-diving aircraft (built with the strength to withstand many atmospheres of pressure) powered by the excess hydrogen or helium 4 may be designed to probe the higher density regions of the gas giants. To take advantage of the large atmospheric resources, the initial designs of such UAVs may include airbreathing (hydrogen or helium) nuclear engines. III. Outer Planet Atmospheric Phenomena Storm locations on Uranus – The AMOSS UAVs mission planning will be based on storm locations. Figures 5 and 6 depict the observed Uranus storm locations (Refs. 23 to 25). Many of the storms lie along a narrow set of latitudes. This will simplify the mission planning. The storm locations may however be coincident with the highest planetary wind speeds. UAV standoff distances may be needed or remote sensing of the lower altitude winds may allow the UAVs to make more close-in measurements. Storm locations on Neptune - Figure 7 depicts the observed Neptune storm locations (Ref. 25) Many of the storms lie along a wide set of latitudes, a completely different situation from that on Uranus. If only one UAV were available, the numerous storm locations will complicate the mission planning Numerous UAVs would be required for complete planetary coverage. Observations of aurorae on Uranus (and perhaps Neptune) may demand the use of sounding rocket like UAVs especially if high altitude measurements are required. To improve data gathering, a small array of GPS-like or communications satellites may be required for continuous coverage during the long data gathering phase while travelling between storms and while loitering to observe the storms or other atmospheric phenomena. IV. UAV Mission Planning Patterns for missions were assessed: one way, round trip, multiple observations, loitering at a phenomenon of interest, etc. A series of broad mission planning flight paths were assembled. Sample mission planning is shown in Appendix A. Both one- way and round trip missions were designed. Options for UAV designs to accommodate both short and long missions are addressed in a later section. The distance between storms is therefore a major issue. The times to traverse from one area of the Uranus and Neptune to another are shown in Figures 8 and 9, respectively. The plots show the travel time for distances of 10 to 90 degrees (latitude or longitude) and for UAV velocities of 100 to 400 meters per second (m/s). For Uranus, the time for traversing 90 degrees at 100 m/s is approximately 111.5 hours. At 400 m/s, the travel time is 27.9 hours. At Neptune, the travel times are slightly lower, given the slightly smaller planet diameter. For examples, at Neptune, the flight at 100 m/s for the 90 degree traverse is 108.1 hours and at 400 m/s to traverse 90 degrees is 27 hours. Time for circumnavigation of storms was considered. When observing a storm, it will be advantageous to circumnavigate the entire storm. In this way, anomalous behavior, winds, or other unique features can be studied in detail. The time to circumnavigate storms is shown in Figure 10. A 100 km standoff distance from the edge of the circular storm was included. As an example, at 300 m/s UAV speed, the time to circumnavigate a 0.05 Earth radius storm is just under 91 hours. V. UAV Design Options Historical studies have investigated nuclear ramjet flyers. Figures 11 and 12 show potential configurations of a nuclear powered ramjet UAV (using the in-situ outer planet atmosphere for propulsion).
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